Zina Bethune

Bethune began her formal ballet training aged six at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet.[2]

By age 14 she was dancing with the New York City Ballet as Clara in the original 1954 Balanchine production of The Nutcracker. Bethune's first professional acting role was at age six, with a small part in the off-Broadway play Monday's Heroes, produced by Stella Holt at the Greenwich Mews Theater.[3]

As a child performer, Bethune appeared in the original cast of The Most Happy Fella as well as several American daytime television dramas,[4] including a stint as the first "Robin Lang" on The Guiding Light from May 1956 to April 1958. Bethune played President Franklin D. Roosevelt's daughter in Sunrise at Campobello in 1960.[3]

Newspaper columnist Dick Kleiner described Bethune's performance in a 1958 television production as a "shatteringly beautiful portrayal of Tennessee Williams' young heroine in This Property Is Condemned."[5]

In October 1958, she portrayed Amy March in the CBS musical adaptation of Little Women.[6] She portrayed nurse Gail Lucas on The Nurses (1962–65),[7] and appeared in other series, including Kraft Television Theatre (with Martin Huston in the series finale), Route 66, The Judy Garland Show, Pantomime Quiz, Hollywood Squares, Young Dr. Malone, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, The Invaders, and Emergency!

Bethune starred as "The Girl" alongside Harvey Keitel in Martin Scorsese's first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door.[8]

Throughout her life, Bethune worked with disabled students. She herself was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11, and hip dysplasia.[9]

Bethune founded Bethune Theatredanse (now called Theatre Bethune) in 1981, a nonprofit dance and drama company that has toured internationally and performed at the White House.[3]

She founded Dance Outreach, now known as Infinite Dreams, in 1980, which, as of 2012, enrolls about 8,000 disabled children in dance-related activities throughout Southern California.[3]